Dear city of cambridge (CC: Region of waterloo) (BCC: Everybody Else)
​​Cutting Through the (Seemingly Bovine) 'Fecal MatteR'
​

June 2, 2026 Region of Waterloo
Community and health services committee Meeting

On this meetings Agenda: 

In Written Submission: 

​Human Rights-Based Responses
to Encampments ​Following
​the 100 Victoria Court Ruling

​As submitted by 'Realizing the Right' Project team members.
With the Region of Waterloo postponing delegate presentations until the June 17th council session, I’ve chosen to share a few quotes from community voices instead of the highlights and meeting footage I would typically include in this space

You can find these contributions lower down on this page, ready for you to explore. 

Media Coverage:
Please check back again later...
This space is pending further updates! 

Human Rights & Housing Fights

Explore slides and additional materials
from another recently featured presentation:​

“I Think It’s Bullshit”:
Encampment Evictions and the Criminalization of Homelessness

​At the centre of this, we must rely on a
​human rights approach.

While we can always do better than these minimum standards, we should never do worse than these basic requirements.
​CAEH Conference Ottawa 2024

​Nickels & Dimes: Seeking Change

 Community Reflections

Looking to broaden community discussions, I've gathered some (and await more!) quotes and comments. I asked contributers to focus their provided reflections somewhere *around* any of three key prompts: encampments, safe tenting, or human rights-based approaches. Prompts aside, my other core ask (re: spice level) was that comments stay *civil enough* not to get me sued, banned, or punched in the face - you know, the basics!

​My hope? That each small, yet vital piece of shared perspective below, may bring us a step closer to the productive, meaningful conversations our community truly needs right now.
"A safe tenting bylaw is the least that the Region of Waterloo could do to ensure the human rights and safety of our unsheltered neighbours. The commodification of housing leaves all tenants, approximately a third of Waterloo Region, at risk of eviction during an escalating, unmitigated climate crisis."
- Meg Walker Tenant Organizer Eviction Prevention and Climate Equity Coordinator, Social Development Centre Waterloo Region​
"The uncomfortable truth is care costs money, and poor care costs more. Older adults are the fastest growing group in the shelter system over the past ten years - many unhoused for the first time."
- Sharon Livingstone 
"Two judges and countless delegates have told you how to stop violating humans and their rights. Stop being servants of fascism and let the most vulnerable build the shelters this region is too incompetent to provide."
- Laura Mosher
- In solidarity,
​Devon Spier
Founder, Designer,
Theologian and Book Press Owner
Ir-Reverence Fashion House
​JEW-ish Press and Consulting

Crooked Capitalism Cancels Compassion

"The scarcity mindset pushed by people in power ensures resources remain pooled at the top and don't reach the people in need. Criminalizing people further exacerbates this crisis. There is a dire need for support and resources in all areas of the housing continuum."
- Mauleek Bhatt 
"It seems like no municipality wants to take a bold, truly human rights-based approach to encampment policies out of fear that other cities will send their unhoused populations there on the next bus out of town. Waterloo Region has the opportunity to be a leader in this space and set an example for other local municipalities to follow."
- Community Advocate 

​Safe Tenting Zones and the Waterloo Encampment Case
by David Alton
"Justice Gibson’s ruling should end the fantasy that governments can litigate homelessness out of sight. Waterloo Region needs a safe and legal tenting protocol, and the courage to stop criminalizing homelessness. ​Rights are not obstacles to infrastructure; they are the test of leadership.​"
- Simon Guthrie

​Love, compassion and a whole lot of action!

(2021 Rally - Kitchener, Ontario)
"In this moment where people are being forced to live without the necessity of housing, the affirmation of the right to housing and the ability to stay is incredibly important, paradigm changing."
- Dr. Tobin LeBlanc Haley
“The Region needs to find another storage site for the transit hub or an alternative safe place for people to live. So much of politics is performative. I do hope the next meeting is more than that! Evicting people who are unhoused, often due to evictions, is clearly re-victimization.”
- WR Community Member
"Since it should now be unequivocably clear that housing is a human right, the Region of Waterloo needs to everything in it’s power to provide safe, affordable and accessible housing for all of our community members. Until housing is available, evicting those living in encampments is not an option. Providing compassionate care and supports for our unhoused neighbours is the only option – primarily because it is the right thing to do, but also because there is a wave of community awareness about this issue, and we will all be voting at municipal, provincial and federal levels for leaders who enact policies of community care. Let’s remember the words of T.S. Eliot in “The Rock” and insist that our answer to those who visit our cities is strongly rooted in community care:
“When the stranger says: ‘What is the meaning of this city? Do you huddle together because you love one another?’ What will you answer? ‘We all dwell together to make money from each other,’ or, ‘This is a community’?"
- WR Community Member 
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